Sharp Family Excursion to Baja with SeaSmart

Sharp Family Excursion to Baja with SeaSmart
Orca encounter

SeaSmart Adult Week – Saturday, July 16, 2022

SeaSmart Environmental Education Non-Profit

My wife Benita, daughter Kaitlin and I took an excursion to the Sea of Cortez with SeaSmart, an environmental education non-profit. From their ‘About Us’ page: SeaSmart is a 501c3 nonprofit organization whose primary mission is to raise awareness of and develop advocates for ocean conservation, marine biology and SCUBA via programs and camps.  We believe this is best accomplished through unique, experiential learning in locations where participants have a direct impact on endangered marine inhabitants and ecosystems, developing an “explorer mindset.”  SeaSmart strives to bring these empowering opportunities for learning to students of all socioeconomic levels.”

Most of their experiences are for students, but parents and others have asked them, “Hey, why can’t we go on one of these?” So, they set up an Adult Week. Our excursion was their first try at hosting adults. We learned of it from a friend who is friends with the Director.

The Plan

The plan was for a 7-night adventure in La Ventana, BCS Mexico, a small fishing village on the Sea of Cortez, between La Paz to the north, and Cabo Pulmo marine park to the south. From the SeaSmart description: “We will be staying in Las Cabanitas in Agua Amarga just outside of La Ventana.  This safe, small and remote village is south of La Paz on the eastern side of the Baja peninsula in the Mexican state of Baja California Sur. The magical Baja landscape provides a picturesque and serene backdrop for our stay, where we can enjoy the contrast between the desert terrain of this village and the bright blue of the nearby Sea of Cortez.” That is where their student group stayed the week before. We’d have 4 days of 2-tank dives, a day of snorkeling with rays and sharks, a beach cleanup or other ecological activity, and presentations from visiting ray and shark scientists.

Day 1 Saturday, 7/16/2022

Our journey started at 3 AM, when we had to get up to be ready for our 4 AM ride to the airport for our morning flight to Cabo San Lucas. After a 4-hour flight from Seattle, we arrived in Cabo, found our hosts and prepared to board our van for the drive to La Ventana. That’s when we found out that the plan had changed and our venue had changed from Las Cabanitas in Agua Amarga, to a place called Baja Joe’s Resort in La Ventana proper. During the student week, Las Cabanitas was fun, but SeaSmart decided that they were probably a little too rustic for us adults, and made arrangements with Baja Joe’s, which was on the beach (instead of a short drive to the beach) and had a bar. Three hours later, we arrived at Baja Joe’s.

The first day was spent getting aquatinted with our SeaSmart hosts, Lisa McIntyre, Ellen Meyers and Eva Parades, and our group. I’m the only fella in our diving cohort. Our friend Mike is here too, but he’s not diving this trip, so out on the boats, it was just me.

Day 2 – Sunday

Early start because the wind was predicted to kick up in the afternoon. “Hey, we need to get an early start tomorrow, so breakfast is at 5:30.” Is not what you want to hear after a long day traveling, but weather does what it wants. We’re headed to Isla Ceralvo, across from the resort.

Our Dive Boats, Captains and Crew

Our dive boats and their captains are all locals who were fishermen but have been recruited to the dive industry in an effort to provide a more sustainable income for them and help preserve the marine environment. The local non-profit teaches them how to safely run scuba trips; safety protocols, conservation mindset (i.e., don’t harass the wildlife), etc., and sets them up with tour groups. Divemasters are recruited locally. It’s a win-win, since the captains have decades of experience in these waters and know the sea life and conditions, and scuba tourism provides them a more reliable income and reduces the fishing pressure on the environment.

I didn’t know this, and was appalled to find out, that when they are booked for a sportfishing trip, they only got paid if the client catches fish. If they are unlucky, they end up spending the entire day on the water and paying for their gas and other expenses with nothing to show for it. If they are commercial fishing, they only get paid for what they can catch. When we book them for a day of diving, they got paid regardless of the outcome. Except for cases of extreme weather, with their local knowledge they could almost always find someplace that was sheltered for us to dive and even if we’re blown completely out, they get some compensation from us.

Our main boat captain is Juan Lucero, aka Eagle Eyes. Lisa, the SeaSmart Director tells us: “He’s a fisherman from generations of fishermen in the Agua Amarga community. Until the fishing ban, this community was one of the main places in the Gulf of California where mobula rays were fished commercially. Nowadays, Juan works with the Mobula Conservation Project carrying out drone surveys, hosting documentary crews, and even has started his own ecotourism company to show visitors the beauty of his waters. We love Juan for his patience and ‘eagle eyes’ when looking for wildlife, and his passion to transition from fishing to non-extractive activities.”

Our local divemaster, Carlos, was a diver for the Mexican Navy and was always upbeat, friendly, helpful and very professional. He was great. Our other guides were Ellen, a local divemaster from down the road in San Carlos, and Marta, the visiting mobula ray scientist.

The dive boats were small, converted outboard fishing boats called pangas. Each carried four divers plus crew. These were very much converted fishing boats. Our captain had modified our panga into a dive boat configuration with seating around the edges with tank holders. Others had bench seating with gear stowed on the floor. But all were fast, maneuverable and stable, even if the small ladder was a bit of a challenge.

The Dives

Dive #1 – Los Chivos, or Meet the Morays

The 1st dive featured lots of eels. La Ventana is not really a dive destination yet, so site names aren’t as established as other places you might go. We crossed the channel over to Isla Ceralvo, also known as Jacques Cousteau Island. Our first dive site is unofficially named Los Chivos (The Goats), after the wild goats who are the only large, permanent inhabitants of the island, but we named it Meet the Morays. It had a rocky bottom and sparse coral with the usual reef fish and lots of eels. And when I say lots of eels, I mean there was an eel seemingly in every crack and crevice, once you knew where to look. Green morays, spotted morays, eels of every type were all over the site.

We also found some unusual things like an electric ray, a stonefish, and many colorful nudibranchs.

This was Kaitlin’s first dive after her Open Water certification. She trained with our own George Barron to prepare for this trip, and received her PADI Open Water and Drysuit certifications in the cold, murky water of Puget Sound, so tropical diving was a completely new experience. It was also her first boat dive, first backward roll entry not in the pool, and first warm water diving. Not a bad way to start her diving life. She handled it like a champ. Watching her, you’d never think it was her first time out.

After a surface interval and a lunch of delicious homemade burritos; literally homemade by the Captain Juan’s aunt, we moved on to our next site.

Dive #2 – Los Viejos, or Meditation Station

The 2nd dive was very different. Beautiful corals, many fish. The highlight of the dive was the field of garden eels. Big ones. There was a large sand field full of them but you had to stay very still to get them to come out. Carlos led us to the sand and we settled down at the edge and relaxed, and waited for the eels. At first, we started to see a few, in a ring around us, right at the edge of our visibility. Then as we continued to wait, there were more and more, and they were closer, even right behind us, then right in front of us, coming up out of their holes and waving in the underwater breeze, until the whole area was full of them. I’d seen garden eels before, but these were big, stretching fully out of their holes. Then it was time to move on and return to the boat. At the first significant movement by one of us, all the eels instantly retracted into their holes, so there was only an empty sand field again.

Afternoon & Evening

Nap, thank God. Then everybody gathered in the common room, which is a large covered kitchen and dining room for picture sharing and conversation, followed by a delicious communal dinner prepared by Chef Ruben, followed by margaritas.

A few words about Chef Ruben because he was a highlight of our trip. His name is Ruben Gutierrez and he trained as a chef in Mexico City, and owned his own restaurant in La Ventana. Now he specializes in catering groups like ours. I can’t praise him enough. His meals were all fine restaurant quality and his engaging personality and obvious pride in his work were infectious. He was happy to talk cooking with you and show you exactly what he was doing. Having him there was a treat.

There was a rousing game of 5 Second Rule after dinner and drinks, which the margaritas undoubtedly made far more interesting. We’d never heard of this game before, but here’s how it works. The game consists of a stack of cards and a 5 second timer device that’s a stick with a spiral track on the outside where little BBs race around when you turn it over (it also makes a funny/annoying whining, honking sound). The cards say something like: Name 3 (somethings), then you start the 5 second timer. The ‘somethings’ on the card is a category that would be easy if you had 10 seconds but becomes wicked hard if you only have 5. For example, “Name 3 animals that fly.” Each card had an “easy” side, and a “hard” side. The person reading the card gets to choose which question to use. If the person on the spot fails, the next person gets to try, but they can’t use any answer that’s been used previously, so there’s a bit of strategy and paying attention even if it isn’t your turn. If you succeed, you win the card and get to be the one reading the next card and wielding the timer. The person who finishes with the most cards wins the game.

Yeah, the margaritas definitely made it more interesting. Eva, who in her civilian life is a middle school science teacher, was exposed as a fraud after missing multiple science questions. Best category of the night? “Name three things you do when nobody is watching.” This game would lend itself to homemade cards ala Cards Against Humanity.

After we’d all thoroughly humiliated ourselves, it was off to bed.

Day 3 – Monday

Going north to the far end of the island. Rumors of manta rays and other big stuff. We don’t have to get up quite so early, since the weather is supposed to be okay.

Dive #3 – Punta Norte

We had a 90-minute boat ride to our first dive site, which was supposed to be La Reina (The Queen), where the mantas were reported to be skulking about. La Reina is a dramatic undersea pinnacle that is famous for its sea lion colony and large animals like mantas and sharks, plus lush coral, mobula rays and other diving delights. Unfortunately, we were blown out; 3 ft. swells, chop and strong currents. No way to safely dive or get back up our ladder in those conditions. So, we moved on to a sheltered bay and had a nice, not great, but nice, dive at a site called Punta Norte (North Point).

I have the worst luck with famous undersea pinnacles. On my liveaboard on the Great Barrier Reef we were supposed to venture out to Osprey Reef, “Situated nearly 350 km away from Cairns, Osprey Reef is the most northerly of the reefs in the Coral Sea. It is separated from the continental shelf by a deep-water trough and is regarded as one of the premier Great Barrier Reef liveaboard destinations.” But before we left the main GBR and headed out, the Trip Director called us all into the lounge and announced we couldn’t go out there because there were, “7-meter swells with 1 to 2-meter waves on top which make it impossible to dive.” Yeah, you think? I piped up and said, “For my fellow metric challenged Americans, that’s 23 ft. swells with 3 to 6 ft. waves.” Now, I can add La Reina to that list.

The surface interval had homemade fresh empanadas. This trip has had the best boat food.

Speaking of surface intervals, we didn’t really need them except to move to a new site, enjoy the delicious food that was prepared for us every day, rest a little and switch tanks. None of the dive sites were deep. At most of them you’d need a shovel to get down below 30 ft., so as far as staying within our decompression limits, we didn’t need a surface interval because all of our dives were essentially extended safety stops.

Dive #4 – Pequeña Reina

Our second dive was at a smaller pinnacle called Pequeña Reina or La Reinita which means little queen. Very dramatic topography. Sheer walls to 80 ft. with crags and crevices. This was one dive you could go deep if you wanted, although all the action was shallow. Tons of life here. Schools of fish, nudibranch, a sea turtle zooming past my daughter Kaitlin’s head at full speed (I didn’t know they could go that fast) and a moray eel in every crevice, again. Very nice dive. Kaitlin only has 4 dives now after her certification but she has an amazing eye for finding things. She’s way better at it than I am.

Tonight, Ruben is preparing a seafood feast featuring fish Mike caught on his day out fishing, then our resident mobula ray scientist, Ph.D. candidate Marta D. Palacios, is going to tell us all about them, her research, and the work of the Mobula Conservation Project.

Day 4 – Tuesday

Dive #5 – Old Hotel or Abandoned Hotel

Tuesday was blustery again with swells. We stuck close to home to find a sheltered spot we could dive safely. The first dive was at a place called Abandoned Hotel, because, well, there’s an abandoned hotel there on the point overlooking the bay. It was okay. There were some shallow channels and swim-throughs in the reef and the usual reef denizens. The highlight was dozens of cute, somewhat curious puffer fish.

Dive #6 – Jardin de Eels

For the 2nd dive we crossed over to Isla Ceralvo again, this time the south end. Found a little protected bay with a beautiful reef and nice visibility. Again, very shallow, but it was really pretty. Lots of the usual reef fishes and some colorful nudibranchs. There was another fast-moving sea turtle. I don’t know what it is with the turtles here, but both we’ve seen have been traveling at warp speed. Maybe it’s the local orcas that make them nervous.

The evening featured a shark education presentation from our resident ecology educator Ellen, which made us all eligible for the PADI shark specialty certification apparently, then another gourmet seafood meal from Chef Ruben.

They just announced no diving tomorrow. Hurricane Estelle (350 miles SW of us out in the Pacific Ocean) even though she is far away, is churning things up too much. That means we don’t have to get up for breakfast at 6:30 AM, so the blender has been deployed and the margaritas are flowing.

Day 5 – Wednesday

Slept in. Relaxed, took a stroll on the beach, then we took an excursion to the town of El Triunfo, an old mining town in the mountains, for lunch at the Cafe El Triunfo. It was astonishing for such a little place in the middle of nowhere. Delicious food, beautiful grounds, great service.

Our plans have changed again, with the forecast calling for calming winds in the evening, we’re going to try a shore dive at night, and have a little beach get together.

Dive #7 – Punta Arena

We geared up right after we got back from lunch and headed for the beach. This was my daughter Kaitlin’s first official night dive; I mean she learned in Puget Sound where every dive is basically a night dive if you go below 40 ft., but this was her first experience going into the water in full darkness. Kaitlin was a little nervous, but I reassured her that it was not any harder than her training dives and night dives have lots of fun things to see that you don’t get to see during the day. Actually, nothing down here has been as challenging as her training dives, which was kind of the point, but still, entering the water when it’s black can be a little intimidating.

The sky was clear and the Milky Way was splashed out above us as we made our way down the beach. Once in the water we swam out a bit then descended. The site was lousy with puffer fish. They were everywhere. As we made our way down the reef our lights were swarmed by tiny, wriggling worms. This always happens on tropical night dives but this was the most I’d ever seen. If you didn’t move your light, soon it was enveloped in a pulsating red ball, dimming your light to the point of being useless.

Kaitlin and I were buddied up with divemaster Carlos. Since this was Kaitlin’s first night dive, my one and only priority for this dive was to not lose her and for both of us to get back to shore safely. If I lost her, I’d just need to keep on looking until I found her or ran out of air and died, because there’d be no way to explain to her mother, who was waiting on shore, that I’d lost her. Less than 5 minutes in, I couldn’t find Kaitlin. She’s a conscientious diver and good at maintaining buddy contact, but I was trailing her and Carlos and I was briefly blinded by somebody with a big video light rig, and when my night vision came back, she and Carlos were gone. I found her after a brief search, safely right next to Carlos looking at something hiding in the reef, which I later found out was her first lobster, but on the other side of him where I couldn’t see her until I swam up a little.

The dive was good but very shallow. We never cracked 20 feet of depth, but we did check off nearly all the squares on our tropical night dive bingo card: octopuses, big free swimming moray eels, lobster, shrimp, crabs, nudibranchs, corals with their polyps extended for feeding, sleeping parrot fish, and of course, lots and lots of puffer fish. The only big thing missing was a shark.

When we returned to the entry point and surfaced, there were big fireworks going off in the distance. I like to think it was to celebrate Kaitlin’s first night dive.

Day 6 – Thursday

Day off. We got weathered out again. Hurricane Estelle may have been off the coast out in the Pacific, but she was still playing havoc with the weather here. Our hosts made an arrangement with the resort next door that had a pool. We spent most of the day there. Since we have such a big group, they even opened the bar. It was very pleasant, with a strong breeze to relieve the heat, and kite surfers in the bay. I’ll say this for the SeaSmart crew, they were excellent at improvisation and making the best of changing circumstances.

Our shark scientist, Dr. Kathyrn Ayres, Ph.D. gave a lecture in the bar about the research she’s been doing. Dr. Ayres had just been awarded her Ph.D. right before joining us. Katy is “originally from northern England. Her research project involves monitoring blacktip sharks (Carcharhinus limbatus) using aerial drone surveys along the coastline of Cabo Pulmo National Park, as well as the use of satellite tracking and acoustic telemetry to monitor their movements.” Fascinating stuff.

Day 7 – Friday

Today was our pelagic safari. We got up at the crack of dawn and got to the boats with our snorkel gear. No SCUBA today. We’re trying to find a school of mobula rays while one of our boats chums for sharks. Mobula rays congregate in huge schools and this is the only place in the world that they do it. The plan is to find them and swim with them, and when we get word that the sharks have appeared, we’ll come back and have ourselves a snorkeling shark encounter.

Unfortunately, the wildlife didn’t get the memo. No rays or sharks. The rays have moved on in their southern migration. The water has cleared and there’s no food for them so they went looking for greener pastures (waters). Not sure what the deal was with the sharks. It was just inconsiderate of them to miss our appointment like that and not even call or text.

BUT we did find a resident pod of orcas and got into the water with them! We saw them clearly. There were two females with their babies very close to us. It was only a few seconds but it was magical. After our encounter we paced them with the boats for a while and some of our group, who didn’t see them the first time, went back in and had their encounter. We followed them some more and watched from the surface.

After the orcas, we spent more time looking for rays and sea lions, and waiting for sharks, and struck out on all of them. There was a nice snorkeling spot off Isla Ceralvo and we played there for a bit.

On the way back, we found a pod of over 100 dolphins and got to experience them in the water too.

A very, very long day on the boat, but snorkeling with orcas was on my bucket list and is now checked-off, not that I wouldn’t do it again in a heartbeat, and a nice way for my daughter to wrap up her first dive trip.

Now it’s on to dinner then packing. Dinner was nice, with Chef Ruben going all out and our boat captains and their families joining us.

Day 8 – Saturday

Boarded the van to the airport in the morning, where we said goodbye to our new friends, and flew home.

A Few Final Thoughts

We had a very nice time with SeaSmart in Baja. As often happens on dive trips we met awesome people, who hopefully will remain lifetime friends. The experience itself was very different from some of the concierge diving we’ve done in different locations. It was less of a resort experience, and more of a group of friends exploring and experiencing a place together. Like SeaSmart says in their ‘About Us’, “… unique, experiential learning in locations where participants have a direct impact on endangered marine inhabitants and ecosystems, developing an “explorer mindset.” Working with the local people, learning about the local marine environment and how we, as divers, can positively impact that environment and the people who live there was very rewarding.

When I say it wasn’t a concierge experience, that’s not to say that SeaSmart didn’t take very good care of us. They absolutely did. Lisa and Eva and especially Ellen, who was our liaison with the captains and coordinated all of the on-water activities and scientists, worked tirelessly to bring everything together, alongside our captains, guides, Captain Juan’s aunt, who prepared all of the delicious boat food we enjoyed during our surface intervals, and of course, Chef Ruben. But it felt more like a community, which was pretty cool.

Again, thanks to Ellen and our visiting scientists, Marta D. Palacios and Kathryn Ayres, for joining us and sharing their knowledge with us.

I would recommend a SeaSmart program to anybody interested in this kind of experience, especially anybody with a child the right age to join one of their programs. What a great way to get into diving, develop a love for the oceans, and have an unforgettable adventure.

More Information

Here are some handy links if you’d like to know more, or support any of the organizations mentioned in this report.

SeaSmart – https://www.seasmartocean.org/summer-2022

Pelagios Kakunjá – https://www.pelagioskakunja.org/

Mobula Conservation Project – https://www.mobulaconservationproject.com/

1 Comment

  1. Nice write-up. Thanks. I really enjoyed my one trip to Sea of Cortez a few years ago.

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